1. Field
Apparatuses consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to an ultrasonic probe for an ultrasonic diagnostic instrument for diagnosing a disease.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ultrasonic diagnostic instruments are instruments that radiate ultrasonic waves toward a target part inside an object from a surface of the object and obtain an image regarding a fault of a soft tissue or a blood flow of the soft tissue in a non-invasive manner by receiving reflected ultrasonic-wave echo signals.
In comparison with other image diagnostic instruments, such as X-ray diagnostic instruments, computerized tomography (CT) scanners, magnetic resonance image (MRI) diagnostic instruments, and nuclear medicine diagnostic instruments, ultrasonic diagnostic instruments are small-sized and cheap, can display an image in real time, and have high safety due to lack of radiation exposure. Thus, ultrasonic diagnostic instruments are widely used in heart, abdominal, urinary, and ob-gyn diagnoses.
An ultrasonic diagnostic instrument includes an ultrasonic probe that radiates ultrasonic waves onto the object and receives ultrasonic echo signals reflected from the object so as to obtain an image inside the object.
In general, a piezoelectric material that converts electrical energy into mechanical vibration energy and generates ultrasonic waves, is widely used to form a transducer that generates ultrasonic waves in the ultrasonic probe.
A capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (hereinafter referred to as a “cMUT”) that is a new concept of transducer has been recently developed.
In recent years, research on and manufacturing transducers of two-dimensional (2D) arrays have been briskly conducted. The cMUT is appropriate to manufacture a transducer of a 2D array and thus facilitates development of a multi-channel transducer.
However, when the number of transducer channels is small, a caloric value generated in an electric circuit for driving the probe is merely 1 W and can be naturally discharged through a case of the probe. However, as the transducer has multi-channels, the caloric value is increased to 7 W and thus the development of technology for heat-dissipation and cooling of the ultrasonic probe is required.